Sag Bridge, Illinois is an

Unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Lemont Township in southwestern

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the List of counties in Illinois, most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, C ...

, United States.USGS description of Sag Bridge, Illinois, retrieved 2012-09-02
bare URL] Sag Bridge is an important waterway junction between the

Calumet Sag Channel The Calumet-Saganashkee Channel, usually shortened to the Cal-Sag Channel, is a drainage and shipping canal in southern Cook County, Illinois, operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD). A component of the ...

and the

Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, historically known as the Chicago Drainage Canal, is a canal system that connects the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River. It reverses the direction of the Main Stem and the South Branch of the Chicago ...

. It is also the junction of IL 83 (Kingery Highway) and IL 171 (Archer Avenue) which meet at Sag Bridge to cross the Calumet Sag Channel together on the eponymous bridge. The community was named for a predecessor of the present bridge. It is within the village limits and postal delivery zone of

Lemont, Illinois Lemont is a village located in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a south-west suburb of Chicago. The population was 17,629 as of the 2020 census. The village is situated on a hillside along the south banks ...

. Other than the bridge for which it was named and the canal that the bridge crosses, the most significant feature of the community is the historic St. James at Sag Bridge Catholic Church, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

Sag Bridge exists at a significant geophysical point, at the confluence of the Sag Outlet and DesPlaines Outlet from historic

Lake Chicago Lake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America's five Great Lakes. Formed about 13,000 years ago and fed by retreating glaciers, it drained southwest through the ...

, which joined at this point to form the Chicago Outlet River and eventually flow into the

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

and the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. Those two outlets isolated a portion of the

Valparaiso Moraine The Valparaiso Moraine is a recessional moraine (a landform left by receding glaciers) that forms an immense U around the southern Lake Michigan basin in North America. It is a band of hilly terrain composed of glacial till and sand. The Valpar ...

called Mount Forest Island, which today forms part of the

Palos Forest Preserves The Palos Forest Preserves are 15,000 acres of forest preserves in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, located principally in Palos Township, Illinois. During the 1930s, the area of the Palos Preserves south of Archer was known as th ...

, part of the

Forest Preserve District of Cook County The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is a governmental commission in Cook County, Illinois, that owns and manages land containing forest, prairie, wetland, streams, and lakes. These land holdings are primarily managed as undeveloped nat ...

. Later, several Native American trails passed through the area, including the ancient trail that evolved into modern Archer Avenue (

Illinois Route 171 Illinois Route 171 (IL 171) is a north–south state highway in northeastern Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 6 in Illinois, U.S. Route 6 (US 6) in Joliet, Illinois, Joliet north to Illinois Route 72 at the Chicago–Park Ridge, Illi ...

). The high bluff of Mount Forest Island overlooking this critical location has served as a lookout for centuries. The French fort on the site was visited by Father Jacques Marquette on his journeys on the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River ( ) is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American H ...

several times in 1673. The community was settled by workers building the

Illinois and Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago ...

, who established their historic church in 1833. Rock quarries developed there in the mid-19th century due to the combination of an abundant supply of quality stone, and convenient transportation on the nearby canal. Though the quarries themselves no longer operate, businesses selling stone products continue in the Sag Bridge area today. Nothing remains of the original bridge at Sag Bridge, except for an isolated remnant of Old Archer Avenue leading to the south bank of its former site, which today provides access for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

and

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

in the Sag Quarries area of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. On March 27, 1991, a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

caused significant damage to Lemont and Sag Bridge, including the historic St. James Church and cemetery.

The Bridge at Sag Bridge

The most recent bridge at Sag Bridge was built in 1934, and carries both IL 83 and IL 171 across the Calumet Sag Channel. This classic, 4-lane Pennsylvania through truss bridge is still structurally sound today; however, it is rated "functionally obsolete" due to growing traffic volumes, especially at the congested awkward 5-way signalized intersection just north of the bridge where routes 83 and 171 diverge.

References

External links

St. James at Sag Bridge Church official site
{{Cook County, Illinois Populated places in Cook County, Illinois Truss bridges in the United States Canals in Illinois Illinois waterways History of Illinois